10 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘Reservoir Dogs’

On its 25th anniversary, here are ten bits of trivia you may not have known about Reservoir Dogs.

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Quentin Tarantino wrote the first draft of Reservoir Dogs in a mere three and a half weeks.

Photo: Everett Collection

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Reservoir Dogs was filmed in just 35 days. Initially only armed with a 16mm and $30,000, Tarantino planned to make the film with friends. Things changed dramatically, however, when Harvey Keitel called and asked for a role and a producing credit - and helped raise the budget to $1.5 million. (Keitel had received the script via the wife of Nice Guy Eddie's (Lawrence Bender) acting teacher).

Photo: Everett Collection

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Because the film's budget was so low, several of the actors wore their own clothes (most notably Chris Penn's bright-colored track jacket). Steve Buscemi and Tim Roth also wore their own black jeans instead of suit pants. Those iconic black suits, by the way? Not all black. Costume designer Betsy Heimann revealed that after being assured by the cinematographer they would photograph black, she "found a cache of 1960s dark navy, charcoal and black jackets; all alike just different colours and "paired them with black jeans and boots" .

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The entirety of Reservoir Dogs does not feature an orchestral score - only pre-recorded tracks. (Perhaps most memorably, "Stuck in the Middle with You").

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Because they shot in Los Angeles in July and August, it was an insanely hot set. On many occasions, Tim Roth had been lying in a pool of fake blood for so long that he became glued to the floor - which required a group of people to peel him away for several minutes.

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Tarantino initially was set to play Mr. Pink, but he did let other actors audition for it. After Steve Buscemi came in to read for the part, Tarantino told him the only way he'd give it up was if Buscemi knocked the audition out of the park. (Obviously, he obliged).

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While Mr. Blonde may have had a taste for the violent, Michael Madsen couldn't have been more opposed to it. He apparently had an extremely difficult time filming scene in which he tortures a cop played by Kirk Baltz, and when Baltz improvised a line about his child being at home while begging for his life, Madsen (then a new father) was so upset he almost couldn't finish the scene. This particular take made the final cut - and if you listen closely, you can hear someone off-camera (likely Tarantino) mutter "oh, no... no!".

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At the September 1992 Toronto International Film Festival, famed horror master Wes Craven was so disturbed by the "ear" scene that he walked out. Craven later recounted the incident: "When I was out in the lobby, this kid came pounding out of the shadows and said, 'you're Wes Craven, right?' I said yeah, and he said, 'And you're leaving because you can't take it?' I said yeah, and he said, 'I just scared Wes Craven!' It was Quentin Tarantino, and I didn't know who he was at the time. But I just don't like watching people get tortured."

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Because of the film's slim budget, they couldn't afford police assistance for traffic control. That meant that the scene that sees Steve Buscemi pull a woman out of her car, fire at police, and drive off could only be filmed when the traffic lights turned green.

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The film contains (approximately) 272 uses of the word "fuck", as seen here in a helpful supercut.